Leaders of the Opposition INDIA alliance, including Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, staged a protest in Parliament premises on Monday. The Opposition MPs holding copies of the Constitution in their hands protested in front of the Gandhi statue in Parliament.
“Modi tried to break the Constitution, that’s why today leaders of all parties have come together and are protesting. There was a Gandhi statue here. They are breaking all democratic norms, that’s why today we want to show that Modi, you should move ahead according to the Constitution,” Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said to ANI news agency.
“The attack that the PM and Amit Shah are launching on the Constitution is not acceptable to us, we will not let this happen. So, we held the Constitution while taking the oath. Our message is going across, no power can touch the Constitution of India,” said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
As the Parliament session begins, the Opposition is gearing up to challenge the NDA government on several fronts, such as irregularities in the NEET-UG and NET exams, the relocation of statutes within the Parliament building complex, and the Union government’s decision to appoint BJP MP Bhartruhari Mahtab as the pro tem Speaker, violating the norms.
Before the first session of the 18th Lok Sabha began, the Opposition INDIA bloc leaders who were walking to the Parliament protested that the choice of having a BJP MP as a pro-tem Speaker is a “violation of the constitution”.
TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee sais: “We are protesting because the provisions of the Constitution have been violated. The Constitution has been violated by the Narendra Modi government. The way the pro-tem speaker has been appointed is a clear violation of the Constitutional provision and clear violation of the earlier precedences.”
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, in a response to PM Modi’s speech earlier in the day, has said that the Opposition INDIA Bloc will hold him to account for every minute of his third term.
“The non-biological PM who suffered a resounding personal, political, and moral defeat in the Lok Sabha elections has just given his usual ‘desh ke naam sandesh’ outside the Parliament as the 18th Lok Sabha prepares to commence its tenure. He has said nothing new and as usual resorted to diversion. He has shown no evidence that he understands the true meaning of the people’s verdict, which saw him eking out only a narrow and dubious win in Varanasi. Let him be under no doubt: the INDIA Janbandhan will hold him to account for every minute. He stands brutally exposed,” he wrote in a post on X.
